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Editorial: Governor Deval Patrick's ban of Zohydro might save lives

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FILE - This photo released on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 by the Massachusetts State Police shows some of the 1,250 packets of heroin labeled "Obamacare" and "Kurt Cobain" which state police troopers confiscated during a traffic stop in Hatfield, Mass. Four people were charged with heroin trafficking. The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in February 2014 spotlighted the reality that heroin is no longer limited to back alleys. The drug has spread to the country and suburbs.
(Associated Press file photo)

Gov. Deval Patrick’s move to ban the latest opioid on the market is both wise and courageous.

Zohydro has been declared “safe” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Guess what other drug the FDA considers safe? OxyContin.

That drug, along with all opioids, is highly addictive. It's not a straight line, but prescription painkillers can lead to the king of addiction: heroin.

In February of 2013, the FDA posted the following acknowledgment of the toll of prescription painkiller addiction:

“More than 15,500 people died in the United States in 2009 after overdosing on narcotic pain relievers. That’s a 300 percent increase over the last 20 years. And for each death, there are an additional ten treatment admissions, 32 emergency department visits and 825 nonmedical users of these drugs. FDA is extremely concerned about the inappropriate use of opioids, which has become a major public health challenge for our nation.”

Heroin use is at crisis proportions in Massachusetts. Police are finding it in unprecedented quantities, with unprecedented frequency. Heroin busts are becoming uncomfortably routine.

Ethan Romeo’s story, chronicled in The Republican and MassLive.com by reporter Sam Bonacci, is frighteningly common and sadly familiar: Prescribed painkillers as a child, Romeo switched to illegal drugs as a teenager. Eventually, he found that he couldn’t function without heroin. No longer in search of a high, he used the drug only to stop the pain so he could function in the world. His addiction was powerful and physical.

“This disease can hit you at any time. It is powerful, it is cunning, it is insidious and it is deadly,” Romeo said.

Heroin addiction leads users to lives of criminal activity in search of their next fix, and overdose is common.

Zohydro is being touted for its purity. It contains just one powerful analgesic: hydrocodone.

The governor’s quick action to ban Zohydro won’t save the people who are already addicted to opioids.

It won’t stop the heroin epidemic, and it won’t stop some doctors from prescribing opioid painkillers.

If upheld by an admittedly skeptical U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel, the ban just might save people from the special form of hell that opioid addiction – in any form -- delivers to its victims.

Patrick’s action, even if symbolic, sends a message that he is serious about fighting the epidemic that often starts seemingly innocently in a doctor’s office.